Marikana Killer Cops: R2K and MSC to wait at SAPS head office for answers!
On Monday 5 October it will be the final deadline for the South African Police Service to give us answers about their response to the Marikana massacre. It has been 85 days since Right2Know and the Marikana Support Campaign used the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to demand SAPS reveals what steps it has taken in the past three years to act on its members’ wrongdoing at Marikana.
R2K and MSC first put in this request after the release of the Farlam Commission report. The initial 30-day deadline for a response was extended by another 30 days, at SAPS’s request. SAPS then claimed a further extension of the deadline using a technicality of the act, despite the extension they had already requested. After all of these delays, the final deadline for these answers will be on Monday, 5 October.
Right2Know will therefore be going to SAPS Head Office in Pretoria on Monday, to demand that this final deadline for response is met by SAPS. We will picket outside the main entrance of SAPS on Frances Baard from 14h30 until 15h30, and will wait for SAPS’s answers.
The Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) is a powerful tool on paper and allows anyone to request records from a public body or a private body, with a 30-day deadline for a response. In practice, however, PAIA is widely disregarded. In its 2012/13 annual report on the state’s compliance with PAIA, the South African Human Rights Commission revealed that 90% of municipalities fail to comply with the Act’s provisions. Furthermore, the PAIA Civil Society Network’s 2013/14 report showed more than half of requests to government departments were refused that year[1].
If SAPS fail to give us a response by Monday, R2K and MSC will lodge an internal appeal with the Minister of Police for the release of this information.
Why this information matters
Despite its shortcomings, the Farlam Commission found serious wrongdoing among police officers on the ground and made recommendation that these cases should be investigated for possible prosecution. This raises questions about what action, if any, the SAPS has taken in the three years since the massacre to act on this wrongdoing. R2K and MSC submitted a request in terms of PAIA to the SAPS for answers to these questions:
- Has the SAPS taken any steps to identify police members who may have exceeded the bounds of justifiable force at Scene 1 and Scene 2? If so, what?
- Has the SAPS initiated criminal investigations or disciplinary measures against any of these members?
- How many of the officers involved in the killing are still carrying firearms?
- Do any of the members of the SAPS who were involved in the killings at Marikana continue to serve in NIU, SDF, TRT or K9 units?
- Have any steps been taken to review the suitability and fitness of members of the SAPS who were involved in the killings at Marikana to continue serving in the SAPS?
- Have any steps been taken to assess the impact of participation in the events at Marikana on members of the SAPS who were involved?
The answers to these questions are essential to hold the SAPS to account, not only to the victims and families at Marikana, but to all in South Africa who need to trust the police. We will continue to demand that this information is made public! The police must be held accountable for their actions at the Marikana massacre and in the days after!
[1 ]See PAIA CSN 2013/14 Report, 2 Feb 2015: http://www.saha.org.za/news/2015/February/15_years_on_shadow_report_reveals_paia_compliance_remain
